Atul Anand

My main research interests are in the use of routine health data to improve outcomes for older people. In my PhD this focussed on cardiovascular disease and frailty, but my interests have expanded to cover a broader range of conditions. This is in line with my clinical work as a consultant geriatrician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. I have been a co-investigator on the HighSTEACS and HiSTORIC cluster randomised trials and am a passionate advocate for these methodologies to improve representation and inclusion of older people in clinical trials. I am the clinical data lead for the DataLoch programme – a data repository of health and social care data in South East Scotland – that will dramatically improve the quality and access to routinely linked data. In keeping with these interests, I am developing a routine electronic health record hospital screening tool for frailty, based on data entered in the normal admission process for older adults. This is available real-time and has recently been adopted to help triage patient care at Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An evaluation of the impact of this approach is ongoing.